Republicans Flesh Out Plan to Dissolve Fannie, Freddie in Dodd Bill

For months, Republicans have insisted that Congress should deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the government-sponsored enterprises backstopping 90 percent of mortgages, which have received around $125 billion in taxpayer aid — in financial regulatory reform.

But their financial regulatory reform counterproposal offered little by way of More…

Banks Down, Fannie and Freddie to Go

With Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on the cusp of pushing his financial regulatory reform bill through Congress, the head of the Senate Banking Committee is looking forward to the next legislative fight, over housing and mortgage finance. This morning, Dodd said that the government-sponsored enterprises — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac More…

Bank Failure Day and Wall Street Paranoia

It’s Friday, which means the government is likely to announce the latest round of bank failures in the late afternoon. Calculated Risk expects commercial real estate to implode in 2009, meaning lots of small and regional banks may go under. So there’s something to look forward to.

Troubled Banks Get a Closer Look

As our story pointed out Thursday, investors are worried about a lot of banks lately — including the Federal Home Loan Banks, the 12 regional institutions that are a crucial source of low-cost mortgage money to many other banks.

For years, the obscure banks had a reputation for poor More…